The Alyona Show: Medvedev and Obama Share Burgers

Published time: 24 Jun, 2010 17:00 Edited time: 25 Jun, 2010 20:06

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's kicked off his trip to the US with a visit to Silicon Valley California, the country's tech capital. Then President Medvedev came to Washington, DC, where he and US President Barack Obama held a round of private meetings where they discussed everything from Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Iran, to Russia joining the World Trade Organization. This meeting was followed by an afternoon press conference. But the two presidents found some time in their busy day to set politics aside to stop at a Virginia burger joint for lunch. Is this a sign of new things to come? Alyona discusses with Josh Rogin from Foreign Policy Magazine.

The G20 summit in Toronto, Canada is just a few days away and protestors are already flooding into the city. Over 20,000 security officials will be working during the summits. RT Correspondent Lauren Lyster reports. Then, Alyona talks to RT Producer Lindsay Garfield who has coverage live from Toronto.

Then, General David Petraeus will be stepping in to lead the effort in Afghanistan, but will this lead to an overhaul of the strategy? Many say that troops weren't huge fans of McChrystal because he changed the rules of engagement to limit civilian casualties and raids on homes. So how are the troops on the ground feeling now? Alyona talks to Afghanistan Veteran Jake Diliberto.

Later, the Senate and the House met behind closed doors to bring an end to a year-long financial reform effort. The bill sets out to include bank restructuring in order to prevent another financial crisis. Alyona discusses the financial reform with Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks. What would happen if derivatives make it into the bill? And could the US see another financial collapse?

Finally, Maywood, California is $450,000 in debt, so they've decided to layoff all employees, disband the police department, and turn off the entire municipal operations over to a neighboring town. The only top officials to keep their jobs will be the city attorney, city manager, and elected officials. Alyona asks Vice Mayor and councilmember Felipe Aguirre from Maywood if this is a sign of things to come in other cities across the state. Aguirre explains why this city has resorted to such drastic measures, rather than filing for bankruptcy.